Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
Accepting the theory that the Tô is one of the large antelopes that
inhabit, or used to inhabit, the Holy Land and its neighbourhood, we
may safely conjecture that it may signify the beautiful animal known
as the ORYX (_Oryx leucoryx_), an animal which has a tolerably wide
range, and is even now found on the borders of the Holy Land. It is
a large and powerful antelope, and is remarkable for its beautiful
horns, which sometimes exceed a yard in length, and sweep in a most
graceful curve over the back.
Sharp as they are, and evidently formidable weapons, the manner
in which they are set on the head renders them apparently
unserviceable for combat. When, however, the Oryx is brought to bay,
or wishes to fight, it stoops its head until the nose is close to
the ground, the points of the horns being thus brought to the front.
As the head is swung from side to side, the curved horns sweep
through a considerable space, and are so formidable that even the
lion is chary of attacking their owner. Indeed, instances are known
where the lion has been transfixed and killed by the horns of the
Oryx. Sometimes the animal is not content with merely standing to
repel the attacks of its adversaries, but suddenly charges forward
with astonishing rapidity, and strikes upwards with its horns as it
makes the leap.
[Illustration: WILD BULL, OR ORYX.]
But these horns, which can be used with such terrible effect in
battle, are worse than useless when the animal is hampered in the
net. In vain does the Oryx attempt its usual defence: the curved
horns get more and more entangled in the elastic meshes, and become
a source of weakness rather than strength. We see now how singularly
appropriate is the passage, "Thy sons lie at the heads of all the
streets, as a wild bull (or Oryx) in a net," and how completely the
force of the metaphor is lost without a knowledge of the precise
mode of fixing the nets, of driving the animals into them, and of
the manner in which they render even the large and powerful animals
helpless.
The height of the Oryx at the shoulder is between three and four
feet, and its colour is greyish white, mottled profusely with black
and brown in bold patches. It is plentiful in Northern Africa, and,
like many other antelopes, lives in herds, so that it is peculiarly
suited to that mode of hunting which consists in surrounding a
number of animals, and driving them into a trap of some kind,
whether a fenced enclosure, a pitfall, or a net.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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